国际刑警组织以打击跨国犯罪闻名于世, 然而现任国际刑警组织主席杰基•塞莱比却因涉黑而被通缉。南非媒体报道说,南非国家检察机构已经向警察总监，同时兼任国际刑警组织主席的塞莱比发出逮捕令。南非国家检察机构拒绝评论这一消息，塞莱比的发言人也表示毫不知情。

Jackie Selebi, South Africa national police commissioner and president of Interpol. [AFP]

South African prosecutors have secured an arrest warrant for Jackie Selebi, the national police commissioner and president of Interpol, according to news reports here late Thursday.

There were few details about the case. Persistent news reports have linked Mr. Selebi, who is also a leading figure in domestic politics, to organized crime figures. It was not clear why Mr. Selebi had not been arrested or charged.

But the warrant, which the news reports said was secured by the National Prosecuting Authority, could be linked to a larger struggle within South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, to determine the party’s political future.

On Thursday, Mr. Mbeki’s rivals questioned whether that suspension had been prompted by a decision by prosecutors to charge Mr. Selebi, a political ally of Mr. Mbeki and a veteran of South Africa’s liberation struggle.

In telephone interviews, neither the South African Police Service nor the National Prosecuting Authority would confirm or deny the warrant’s existence. The warrant was reported by SABC, a public broadcaster, and by The Mail & Guardian, a weekly newspaper that has aggressively reported on Mr. Selebi’s activities.

Mr. Selebi’s shadow in both politics and scandal has loomed large since September 2005, when a South African billionaire mining magnate and political benefactor, Brett Kebble, was fatally shot while driving in a Johannesburg suburb, in what may have been an assassination.

Investigators quickly charged a man suspected of being a drug kingpin, Glenn Agliotti, in connection with the murder, only to find that he was a close friend of Mr. Selebi. In fact, cellphone records indicated that Mr. Agliotti called Mr. Selebi from near the scene of Mr. Kebble’s murder shortly after the shooting.

Mr. Selebi later rejected demands that he resign, saying he was not tainted by mere friendship with an accused criminal, and Mr. Mbeki has defended him.

Some critics of Mr. Mbeki are now demanding to know why the arrest warrant for Mr. Selebi has not been executed, and whether the suspension of the Prosecuting Authority’s director, Mr. Pikoli, is somehow tied to the delay.

“One has to ask, is there a link?” said Helen Zille, the leader of the rival Democratic Alliance. “We must hear what the charges are against him.”

(New York Times)

Vocabulary:

warrant：逮捕证

Interpol：国际刑事警察组织（International Criminal Police Organization ），简称国际刑警组织。成立于1923年，最初名为国际刑警委员会，总部设在奥地利首都维也纳。二战期间，该组织迁到德国首都柏林，一度受纳粹组织控制。二战后，该组织恢复正常运转，总部迁到法国巴黎。1956年，该组织更名为国际刑事警察组织，简称国际刑警组织。1989年，该组织总部迁到法国里昂。

magnate：大资本家，富豪，巨头

kingpin：主要人物

taint：感染，污染

（英语点津 Celene 编辑）